Healthcare costs represent 46 per cent, or close to $2.5 billion, of Nova Scotia's budget. Every day, thousands of people from all across the province get care through our health system that strives to provide high-quality and safe care when and where Nova Scotians need it.
That means...
- performing a total of 895 hip replacements and 1,195 knee replacements in 2004-05;
- performing almost 9,000 cataract surgeries in 2004-05;
- attracting more than 50 new family physicians and specialists to Nova Scotia in 2004-05;
- increasing the number of general practioners accepting new patients from 16.5 per cent in 2001 to 19.2 per cent in 2004, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information;
- performing almost 900 coronary artery bypass surgeries in 2004-05;
- purchasing a new linear accelerator for the QEII in Halifax which helps cancer patients by cutting the time it takes to receive treatment;
- putting new technology in place to help with faster care so that some patients don't have to wait for x-ray images as they are now digital making it faster for doctors to make decisions about care;
- purchasing four new MRIs so Nova Scotians have better access to this important diagnostic tool - soon there will be one MRI for every 117,500 people and they will be spread more broadly across the province.